Suspected Terrorists

《19.A》

Look at that! Released a day early.

I'm sorry I forgot the song on the previous chapter for those who read it. I added one now.

This is going to be the weirdest chapter I've  ever done.

I don't take credit for when Annabeth talks about Tartarus. It is taken from House of Hades and edited to make it into a first person point of view and make more sense in this context.

If you want to skip this chapter you can. It's mainly reliving Tartarus but it will be important to know that Piper knows in future chapters.

Thanks guys.

《<>》

Piper

"Come on Seaweed Brain wake up," Annabeth whispered in Percy's dormant ear.

After he had passed out Frank carried him back to the medical tent to make sure he was okay. Annabeth sat by his side and hadn't moved for four hours straight. I decided enough was enough and entered the tent to make Annabeth take a break.

"Annabeth," I called as I moved back the tarp and stepped inside.

"Yeah," she croaked, her throat dry from the lack of water. Her eyes were red and teary as if she thought Percy wouldn't wake up. It was strange, I hadn't seen Annabeth cry before. Not publicly at least. Even when Percy was missing she never cried openly.

"Annabeth?" I said, a little less sure that the person before me was Annabeth. Her her was matted and wild from the journey here, her cheeks a little sunken and had tear tracks patterning them, there were obvious bags rested under her eyes and the eyes themselves were tinted red and puffy. "Are you okay?" I asked my best friend.

"Honestly? Not really." She replied in the same croaky voice.

I sat down beside her and embraced her warmly. She released Percy's hand from her vice grip and returned the hug. "Annabeth," I whispered, "tell me what's wrong. You seemed upset even before he passed out, when he went to get the poison."

Annabeth released me and glanced at Percy's unconscious form before turning back to me. "I tried to forget about it. I tried to erase it from my mind but I just can't."

"Erase what?"

"The only time I was ever scared of Percy."

My eyes widened. "What?"

"In Ta...Tart...Tartar...us, we..." she stuttered.

"Annabeth you don't have to..."

She raised her hand and cut me off. "No, it's ok. I know I should talk about what happened down there. It's not healthy to keep it bottled up, I know that. It's just so hard to talk about it without reliving it. But I can see that Nico has been so much better since he started talking about it with Will. I should talk about it to someone."

I nodded, took her hand gently and waited quietly while she collected herself and began the story. A story no one had heard before.